Tuesday 21 February 2017

19th Century Wargaming and the next painting project

I have done limited painting since finishing off my Hundred Years War armies and building some Dark Age paper armies. Although the paper armies, while fun, did not really scratch the painting and creative itch.

Still remaining stashed away I have two sets of old miniatures still to paint up from when they were purchased way back in the mid 1970's and early 1980's. These are a Hinchcliffe English Civil War army and sizeable bunch of Spencer-Smith Plastic American Civil War.

I already have some ACW 15mm armies and have no desire to replicate the ACW period in another scale. After reading "Wargaming: Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878" by Neil Thomas, I have been toying with the idea of painting up the Spencer-Smith figures as imaginations armies. So I dug up the old figures from their box and started to see how many and what state they were in. The news was not good with a good fifty percent of the figures being brittle and breaking when tested.

Brittle plastic - such a sad sight
However, the good news is I have about 200 infantry and 50 cavalry all in a good state along with 20 artillery pieces and crew. They all passed the "bendy and break" test - a sad but necessary test. This number should allow me to create two reasonably sized imagination armies suitable for my 6x4 foot table. My next step is to start deciding upon some colourful uniforms by searching online sources. There are no plans to convert any of the figures just paint them.

Half were in a good state passing the bend and break test



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8 comments:

  1. Chris22 February 2017 at 04:07

    Is there any remedy at all for brittleness? Would spraying them with varnish help, i wonder? It's too cold right now for me to try it (I never spray inside, even in my basement), but I'm wondering if you or any of your readers have tried it. If there is no solution, I guess all we can do with at least some of them is turn them into casualty counters. Oof!

    Best regards,

    Chris

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    1. Peter22 February 2017 at 18:09

      Great idea on casualty markers. I just recovered them from the bin :-)

      Delete
  2. Mike22 February 2017 at 05:40

    All my plastic Spencer Smiths went brittle. I replaced them with the metal figures from the same company. Cost a bit, but worth it in the long run IMHO.

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    1. Peter22 February 2017 at 18:07

      I had a look at their web page. Always wanted some SYW so may be a future project. I do like the look for Spencer-Smith figures and prices seem reasonable.

      Delete
  3. Bob The Old Painter22 February 2017 at 19:29

    One way of saving brittle figures is to coat them with PVA before painting and paint them with PVA after painting. This makes them much stronger. Rather than doing the bendy test - which is very accurate!!, try cutting a small piece off the base. If it crumbles rather than slices then you know there is a problem.
    Bob

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    Replies
    1. Peter22 February 2017 at 19:40

      Thanks for the tip. I will try with a few of the remaining brittle ones.

      Delete
  4. jhnptrqn23 February 2017 at 12:24

    I have a rather large collection of Spencer Smith ACW figures and Napoleonics, including lancers and Life Guards that I haven't used since getting them. If interested let me know.

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    Replies
    1. Peter23 February 2017 at 21:18

      Hi - I would be interested in knowing more. You can contact me on peter111jd at gmail dot com
      Regards, Peter

      Delete

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